Bedarra Island
Located in Biyaygiri and Djiru Country, 7 kilometres south of Dunk Island, 15 kilometres south-southeast of Mission Beach, 128 kilometres south-southeast of Cairns, and 157 kilometres north-northwest of Townsville, Bedarra Island (initially known as Richards Island) lies approximately seven kilometres off the North Queensland coast in the middle of the Family Islands National Park.
Bedarra is a continental island composed of granite boulder formations that were part of the mainland before the last sea level rise began 8,000 years ago.
After an initial incarnation as Richards Island, the island was known as Allason Island after Captain Henry Allason, who purchased the island from the Queensland Lands Department in 1913 for £20, inspired by E.J. Banfield's description of the island he called Bedarra — a misspelling of the Warrgamay Biagurra, "the place of endless water" in Confessions of a Beachcomber.
The island has been privately owned since then and gradually morphed into an upmarket resort — more accurately, a collection of boutique tourist attractions — until the eye of Cyclone Yasi passed directly over it as a Category 5 tropical cyclone. Unlike the situation on neighbouring Dunk Island, the eight-villa Bedarra Island Resort and East Bedarra Retreat have been fully repaired.
